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Juicy with a kick of flavor of Chicken Satay by Sate Blora, Rawamangun, East Jakarta

Sorry it took me longer to post another story. I hope I redeemed my self by giving you, all my faithful readers,a little bit food porn.

I was in crave for chicken done right. I mean, a real good cooking that serve the poultry good respect it deserves. I could tell you, It’s different here in Indonesia. We didn’t used to tender and just cooked chicken. Either we deep fried it, long hour stewed it or hard grilled it. The stringy texture of the chicken meat are expected and commonly accepted. So, surely you would understand that I was a little bit skeptical when my husband took me to this Satay restaurant.

How happy I was to be wrong.

The chicken satay from Sate Blora restaurant is exquisite. The meat was adequately marinated, so the flavor and aroma from only a few spices used, just made me salivate instantly. The grill master put the skewered bits on the hot charcoal grill, then manually fan them with the traditional fan made from palm tree leaves. The heat cooked the chicken enough, without overkilled it. When I bite into them, it was the juiciest and melt in your mouth chicken satay I’ve ever had.

Enough said, let the show begin!

I warned you about the porn, right?Here we go.These sexy voluptuous bits on sticks were the uncooked one. Covered them selves with light peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce, patiently waited in line before touching the heat.

The young man who smile shyly is the talented master grill on the job that night. He had his own system to grill by the order, while the charcoal keep on burning. He memorized the set, which ten skewers for which table. He waved the fan a little bit differently on each portion set, to increase or decrease the grilling process through the meat. He didn’t use any timer or thermometer, there were no button to turn the gas up and down. Like any grill master, he used his eye and vast experience to determine which set is ready to serve.

The sizzling sound when the uncooked chicken first touch the hot iron grill was so intriguing. Instantly it created the smoke with inviting aroma.

Beside manually fanning the charcoal, the grill master must keep alert to roll and turn every single skewer. This part is also important to keep the meat cooked evenly, including the light caramelization from the soy sauce marinade. Every satay lover like that slightly burned bits at their meat.

When the time was right, the grill master took a portion set (ten skewers) off the grill onto the hot stone plate to keep it sizzles. Oooh look at those plump meat gleaming on its own juice (too much? sorry).

Finally, I could sample the fruit of the master’s labor.On each table there are two sauce we could use to drizzle on the satay. For extra flavor. Chicken satay goes really well with the peanut sauce, so I add that and ate the whole portion my self with steamy fluffy white rice. If you think it would be too sweet, I can tell you that you are wrong. Very different with Japanese version of Yakitori, this one is not that sweet. The seasoning was mild and well balanced, so the taste of the chicken it self prominent as the hero of the dish. That was scrumptious!